Here's a short, and very amateur, video demo of the pipeline management features we've built into FOB3.
The main features are each opportunity has Milestones and Actions. Actions can be assigned to milestones or unassigned (which makes them work just like FOB2).
Actions can be assigned to People and show in the Schedule on individual dashboards
Milestones are used to calculate the %probability and weighted value shown in the Pipeline Report which is color coded to highlight where work needs t…
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Added by Steve Reeves on July 9, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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That's me :-(
Strangely we have lots of people reading items posted here but few sharing what they know. Howard Larson and Andy Boddice being noticeable exceptions.
Anything to do with Front Office Box automatically gets posted via our Tumlelog, bit that doesn't mean we aren't participating.
It just means I'm using technology to distribute ideas.
Good luck everybody and to our friends in the USA (and family) have a great holiday weekend.
Steve
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Added by Steve Reeves on July 3, 2009 at 8:13pm —
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I’m sure it’s not only me, but for the record I just hate software.
In many ways it gets more complex when it should logically get simpler.
My first experience with the damned stuff was back in 1983 with an operating system called CPM, a document product called Wordstar and a spreadsheet called Supercalc.
The computer had two 64kb floppy drives – 1 for the program and the other for the files. Anything to do with using the machine and software was driven by command line stuff like >A DIR, w…
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Added by Steve Reeves on June 27, 2009 at 7:58pm —
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Yeah I know. If only life was as simple as it looks from the outside.
For all you guys waiting for FOB3 it's coming soon.
I know I've been saying that for months, and I'm still not guaranteeing a delivery date.
BUT I can guarantee you are going to just LOVE IT.
You can keep up with the status of the app in development and see whatever we have available to test at
FOB 3 Status Update Continue
Added by Steve Reeves on June 11, 2009 at 3:44pm —
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We've been addressing some of the final issues with FOB3 and today are happy to report that we've cracked something that users have been asking for - proper calendar integration.
In the new version each user will have a unique iCal address. Milestones related to plans owned by the individual and any actions assigned to the individual are published to that address.
Today we've set up this system with both Google Calendar and iCalendar on the Mac synching to iCalendar on the iPhone and it works…
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Added by Steve Reeves on May 18, 2009 at 6:17pm —
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There was a time when I really enjoyed playing golf. It was great fun learning something new and trying to master the combined challenges of swinging a club, finding the ball and then swinging again.
Like most things we can do whenever we want, the allure faded, which is a real shame when one lives by the first tee of the finest golf course in the world.
But now I've rediscovered the fun and golf has become more fun than ever. Here's how.
At the age of thirty, after three stays in hospital wi…
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Added by Steve Reeves on April 10, 2009 at 11:41am —
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Yep - I feel like a pregnant camel, and I'm sorry this has taken so long.
But we're almost there and the new software is really going to be worth the wait.
I've posted an overview of some of the new features which are in the test environment now.
Pay a visit to
fob3demo.tumblr.com and check it out.
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Added by Steve Reeves on April 10, 2009 at 10:40am —
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Continuing our efforts to make life a little easier for Front Office Box Users we've worked with Conduit to offer you a new toolbar which will self install for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
The toolbar includes a link direct to your login page (see the Front Office Box banner), a Search box, an email notifier and lots of useful gadgets. At some point we'll be including Live Chat so you can interact with other FOB users and whatever other useful stuff comes along.
To get the toolbar just…
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Added by Steve Reeves on April 10, 2009 at 9:30am —
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Took us a while but we finally figured out we need to go where our audience is, not expect them to come to us.
That's cool, the Internet is full of places people like to hang out, and we can be there too. The problem is publishing our updates there, in every site.
After my usual weeks of procrastination I finally got around to working it all out, so I can now write one update and have it automatically published where it needs to be.
Anybody with a similar problem (and less experience) might b…
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Added by Steve Reeves on April 2, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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What could you do with a 1,000 business partners? Or even a million? Ten might be nice?
One to the power of N.
The biggest problem faced by all entrepreneurs is isolation. Nobody wants to help us achieve success. At best they'll want to take our money in exchange for their "professional services" - shame that "professional" doesn't extend to responsibility for results.
How much more powerful could we be with 1,000 experts to call on when we need help?
For a start we could level the playing f…
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Added by Steve Reeves on April 1, 2009 at 7:27pm —
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For the non-sales professional, and the professional sales guy alike, this new software will keep them on top of opportunities, leaving them more time for working on the business.
Staying on top of sales opportunities can be tough. It needs a constant focus most entrepreneurs can’t achieve. They’re just too busy keeping all the other plates spinning.
Sales Managers are paid to stay on top, but typical software can make that very hard work, especially when it’s mostly about collecting data for…
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Added by Steve Reeves on March 28, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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A couple of times recently I've posted on our social media marketing program - where it's working and where it isn't.
But this isn't one of those updates - just a personal note of thanks to all the kind people on Twitter who've been so generous. They help us understand about marketing and even give us a mention once in a while.
And a special note of thanks to the guys at Twitter - your awesome service is how most people come across us, wherever they are.
Last week we got a presence in every c…
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Added by Steve Reeves on March 9, 2009 at 8:18pm —
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Given the state of our economy right now, this is an awesomely powerful question, especially when it isn't associated with a sales pitch.
The world seems full of people trying to get into our bank account to solve their own problems. There aren't too many wanting to spend their cash on us, so we can solve ours.
For a while now the social media "thought leaders" have been persuading us to forget prospecting and heavy selling.
They suggest we join in the conversation, let people find out what w…
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Added by Steve Reeves on March 9, 2009 at 8:00pm —
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UK folks might enjoy this story from Andy Boddice.
Cherie Blair is touring the countryside in a chauffeur-driven car.
Suddenly, a cow jumps out into the road, they hit it full on
and the car comes to a stop.
Cherie, in her usual charming manner, says to the chauffeur:
'You get out and check - you were driving. '
The chauffeur gets out, checks and reports that the animal is dead.
'You were driving; go and tell the farmer, ' says Cherie.
Five hours later, the chauffeur returns totall…
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Added by Steve Reeves on March 6, 2009 at 2:26pm —
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Last night I had a call from
Hubspot, chasing up my download of an instruction video.
Turned out I couldn't make the video work so had forgotten about it.
But I need to congratulate the company on just about the perfect sales call. Katharine asked if I would mind a suggestion concerning our site. Was I going to turn down some free information - Not Likely!
She explained the header title on our site was too long, and dominated by our company name. We shoul…
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Added by Steve Reeves on March 5, 2009 at 8:11pm —
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Increasing comment from the "we know what's good for you" brigade today.
Apparently now we know alcohol is bad for women, causing cancer. A year ago red wine was full of anti something that reduced the risks. How life changes?
We're also told this morning kids are at risk from too much Bebo time. Apparently not only are they banned from playing in the street. They're now to be banned from networking with their friends on line.
I guess they're supposed to learn to knit, especially the boys.
M…
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Added by Steve Reeves on February 25, 2009 at 8:53pm —
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We're now seeing new SaaS based CRM vendors announced almost every week. Over the last couple of years hundreds must have introduced new freemium services. They all offer something different and are making a lot of noise about competitive advantages.
The result is lots of people talking about CRM in one way or another. The concept is getting lots of air time and more people are discovering CRM in the process.
Ten years ago Customer Relationship Management was an emerging concept. At th…
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Added by Steve Reeves on February 25, 2009 at 1:55pm —
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Putting things off is becoming a habit with me - it's probably another sign of advancing years.
But I like to think, just maybe, I'm becoming more relaxed, less impetuous, better balanced. Those are all things I need to be for the next job on my list - reviewing other people's software.
This is going to take me very close to the "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" adage.
Providing software is a very hard thing to do ( I know all about that ) so an appreciation of the chal…
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Added by Steve Reeves on February 22, 2009 at 8:59pm —
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We've had outstanding returns on posting to our own blog - thanks to Google Search, and even more impressive returns from meeting people on Twitter.
Over the last couple of months I've posted a number of times on how we're using Social Media Marketing.
Here's an update on how this effort is returning rewards.
By way of background - last year we conducted a pilot study using Google Adwords, the idea being to test out which market segments we could get interest from, with which keywords…
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Added by Steve Reeves on February 19, 2009 at 7:34pm —
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I came across this post on Twitter.
It says just about everything I ever say about CRM - but I would say.
Here's a guy who doesn't have an axe to grind - David Book at mygoaltracking
"A dozen or so years ago most folks had no idea what CRM was. Today, most folks still have no idea. If you think it is software - you are wrong. If you think it’s a secret weapon used to increase sales, productivity, or reduce expenses, you’re partially right but not totally.
CRM is a concept not a product: Befo…
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Added by Steve Reeves on February 19, 2009 at 6:34pm —
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